1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data entry apparatus for an electrophotographic copying machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, a variety of data entry apparatus has been proposed or provided for an electrophotographic copying machine. This data entry apparatus can shade a prescribed area of a photoconductor such as a side end part of document image when the photoconductor is exposed to a document image and can write data such as date or the like in the shaded area with a data writing head such as a light-emitting diode (LED) array. Thus, a copy of a synthesized latent image of document with this data is formed so as to yield a copy of the composite image (see, for example, Japanese Patent laid open Publication No. 130782/1985).
Usually, the area on a document in which data is to be written is fixed as to a conventional data entry apparatus. It is possible to specify an arbitrary area by the data entry apparatus if a cathode ray tube is used therefor. However, it increases cost thereof.
Further, an editor being connectable to a copying machine which provides editorial functions such as "deletion" and/or "move" has been known. In such an editor, various methods are proposed for specifying an area to be edited. Even such an editor needs to connect a costly apparatus such as a keyboard in order to enter desired data which include alphanumeric characters or kanas (Japanese characters).
An LED array used as a data writing head should have a resolution high enough to write data on a photoconductor. The cost of such an LED array as wide as the photoconductor is very high because of a large number of LEDs and its drivers and the case design necessary to prevent leakage of light. Therefore, an LED array for a data writing head is desirable to be small. However, if such a small LED array is fixed, the position of data entry is also fixed.